On the pulse

At the RCN Congress in Liverpool this week, some of the most pressing issues facing the nursing profession were on the agenda. In particular, two stories covered by Nursing Times highlighted the need for greater awareness of the value of some nursing roles.

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Steve Ford

Steve has been a specialist health journalist for just over 14 years, covering a wide range of clinical and political news. He qualified with a postgraduate certificate in periodical journalism from the London College of Printing in 1999.

He joined Nursing Times in 2007 and has previously worked in senior editorial roles for Doctor magazine, Health Service Journal and HMG Worldwide – the UK’s first B2B online health news network.

Under his stewardship, the Nursing Times news team has developed a reputation for dynamic news content, exclusive investigations and award winning campaigns. His exclusive investigations highlighting key nursing issues, such as staffing levels or bullying in the NHS, have frequently made headline news in national newspapers and broadcast channels.

Nursing Times was judged Best Specialist Site for Journalism at the Online Media Awards 2013 and won the British Society of Magazine Editors' award for Campaign of the Year in both 2011 and 2008.

While news editor at Doctor, Steve’s team won best Trade Feature at the 2006 Medical Journalists’ Association awards and, individually, he was a finalist in the Medical Journalist of the Year category at the MJA awards in 2005 and 2006. HMG Worldwide was judged the Best Electronic Medical News Delivery Service in 2001 when Steve was in charge of content for its main site www.health-news.co.uk.

Please contact Steve if you have a potential news story about nurses or nursing – whether it’s a concern you have about short staffing or a great clinical initiative you want to spread the word about, he is interested in hearing from you.

Nursing in primary care doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, despite the huge importance of the work of practice nurses. From vaccination to managing long-term conditions, they are at the core of services that are crucial to so many patients.

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